Michael Stairs Memorial Concert

The community is invited to the annual Michael Stairs Memorial Concert, in honor of The Haverford School's legendary music teacher who passed in 2018. The Concert brings to campus a renowned musician to perform in Centennial Hall and spend time in a masterclass with Haverford music students. The event aims to celebrate music as an academic discipline, as well as a source of inspiration and joy. 

The concert is free and open to the public, with a performance starting at 7:30 p.m.

Grammy-nominated conductor James Jordan is recognized and praised throughout the musical world as one of America’s pre-eminent conductors, recording artists, writers, music psychologists and innovators in choral music.  Daniel Hyde, Conductor of The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge has described choirs conducted by Jordan as “The Rolls-Royce of Choirs.”  For over 30 years, his innovations in both choral pedagogy and conducting pedagogy have been lauded worldwide, and he has effectively inspired changes in choral conducting and pedagogy that have impacted choral music around the world. He was described as a “visionary” by the American Choral Journal, which cited his book Evoking Sound as a “must read.” His more than 60 books and publications explore both the philosophical and spiritual basis of musicianship, as well as aspects of choral rehearsal teaching and learning, and they are considered to be essential references in the conducting profession. A partial listing of his most important books can be found here.

Jordan served as Professor Director of Choral Studies at Westminster Choir College where he served as the 7th conductor of the 100 year-old Westminster Choir and the world renowned Westminster Symphonic Choir.  Prior to these conducting responsibilities, he conducted both the Chapel Choir and the Schola Cantorum.  His 12 years conducting the Westminster Williamson Voices established that choir as one of the most admired and reviewed choral ensembles in the world, with 15 CDs to its credit. Their Grammy-nominated recording of James Whitbourn’s “portraiture” seminal work, Annelies (Naxos) is one of the most performed choral works in the world.  He is also director of the Westminster Conducting Institute and co-director of the Choral Institute at Oxford. In collaboration with the late James Whitbourn, they established The Choral Institute in Oxford in 2012.  Thousands of musicians have come to study with him during his acclaimed summer workshops at Westminster Choir College in Princeton from 1991-2019.  

He is conductor of The Same Stream Choir and have recorded 5 acclaimed CDs with the choir, and is a host on the nationally syndicated Radio program, Sounds Choral  produced at wwfm.org.

James Jordan is the first musician and considered to be the world’s leading authority concerning the practical application of the Effort Shape Principles of Rudolf von Laban to both conducting and rhythm pedagogy. His book, The Conductor’s Gesture is considered around the world to be the seminal work on the application of Laban Effort/Shape principles to conducting. He is featured on a number of podcasts, notably Luminous: Conversations on Sacred Arts available on all major outlets.  His podcast on Choralosophy has become a classic.

A passionate advocate of mentoring and supporting composers, has also been a focus of his career.  He is Executive Editor of the Evoking Sound Choral Series which has over 300 published editions.  He has also assembled one of the most extensive online resources for Conducting Pedagogy and Choral Pedagogy on the Giamusic.com website: The Virtual Classroom.  

Study with James Jordan is available through the comprehensive educational platform The Choral Academy.